Product Review: Razor Electronic Muffs

By Joe Berk

I’ve never been one to fall for fancy newfangled gear (unless it involved fancy walnut), so for most of my life I’ve used cheap Harbor Freight earmuffs when shooting.  That’s okay for most shooting, I thought, but I recently noticed that my earmuffs were interfering with getting a good cheek weld on a rifle stock when shooting from the bench. And there was another issue:  Good buddy Daniel (one of the rangemasters) always has a good joke or two, and I couldn’t hear him through my earmuffs.

I noticed other guys using electronic earmuffs.  You know, the kind that lets you hear normal conversation, but chops out the loud report from a handgun or rifle.  They appeared in a recent ad to be slightly narrower than my el cheapo Harbor Freight muffs, too, so I thought maybe they wouldn’t interfere with the rifle’s stock.  So I pulled the trigger, figuratively speaking, and ordered a pair of Razor Slim Electronic Earmuffs from Amazon.

They take two AA batteries (which are provided), and they turn on or off via a dial on back of the left earmuff.   That dial also controls the volume.  Turn them off, and they are like a regular set of earmuffs.  Turn them on, and you can hear conversation but rifle and handgun shots are attenuated.  You can control the volume, so I imagine they are pretty much like wearing hearing aids.  In fact, they work almost too well in that regard.  I could hear conversations a dozen benches down on the firing line, and I had to reduce the volume because I found it distracting.

I like these Razor earmuffs.  I can carry on a conversation when wearing them, and that makes it nice because those with whom I’ve conversing don’t need to shout (nor do it).

The knob on the left eafmuff controls the volume and is also the on-off switch. If you forget to turn that knob off, it will run down the batteries.

There are three things I don’t like about the Razor earmuffs, but none are showstoppers and they wouldn’t prevent me from buying them.  The first is that the original reason I bought them (to eliminate interference with the rifle stock), well, that isn’t what I found.  The name notwithstanding (“Razors”), they interfere as much or more than a plain old set of the Harbor Freight earmuffs.  The second is that it’s easy to forget to turn down the volume all the way and switch the earmuffs off, with the result being that on the next trip to the range, the batteries are dead.  That one’s on me, I guess.  The third reason is they are warm.  The Razor earmuffs form a better seal around your ears, and on a hot day, that can be a bit of a drag.   But like I said above, none of these are showstoppers for me, and they shouldn’t be for you, either.


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7 thoughts on “Product Review: Razor Electronic Muffs”

  1. Are these noise canceling? Or are they ear muffs with microphones tuned to the frequency of speech and at the same time to reject the report of a firearm?

    1. A good question, and the answer is: I don’t know. I’ll see what I can find out and get back to you.

    2. Marcus, I don’t think this directly responds to your question, but here is what I could find on the Walker site:

      “The Walkers Razor Slim Electronic Muff features advanced sound-activated compression technology, effectively reducing harmful noises like gunshots and loud machinery to safe levels, while still allowing you to hear important ambient sounds. With a noise reduction rating (NRR) of 23 dB, these earmuffs provide exceptional protection in even the loudest environments, ensuring your hearing stays safeguarded.”

      I guess I could give an answer that starts with “I was raised in a middle-income family…” That kind of response seems to work for some people and some folks accept that. I suspect you and most of our readers are smarter than that, though.

  2. The best answer would be custom moulded in-ear protection but you might have to sell a rifle or two to afford something like that.

  3. Joe – I used a pair of the Walker Razor Ear Protectors when we went on our pig hunt, I found them to be great. I now use them all the time for shooting rifle & pistol. For shotgun work I have a pair of molded in ear plugs that I had custom fitted at the CA state ATA trapshooting event some years back. The molded in ear plugs are fine for shotgun shooting but I find them not good enough for rifle or pistol shooting except for .22 LR shooting.

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